Applying to universities is a stressful and potentially life-changing experience, so it’s understandable that applicants want to persuade the admissions committee that they fit the mold of the type of student that is typically admitted to their program. The problem with this approach is that few people can successfully read the committee members’ minds, and this strategy generally produces generic or misguided resumes and impersonal essays that lack authenticity. In fact, being yourself, framing your individual experiences and achievements in positive ways, and telling your unique stories is the best way to create a compelling set of reasons to be admitted. Fortunately, there are many things within your control that you can do to develop the strongest profile of yourself in support of your candidacy.
Be Your Most Memorable Self
When tasked with writing application essays, some people are struck by the feeling that they are not unique and don’t have anything special to write about. It’s true that many people have similar career arcs, job titles, and university degrees, but each person has achieved those things in their own ways and on their own timelines. The individual experiences that guide our decision making and shape our values are the stories that differentiate us from our peers and other applicants. When preparing to write your essays, think carefully about personal revelations, growth experiences, and watershed moments in your career, and relate those formative stories to your desire to pursue education as the next step on your career path. Sometimes these stories are clearly marked by awards or promotions, but other times these stories involve no specific achievements but are deeply personal, and the writer may never have shared the importance of such events before writing this essay. People have communicated by telling stories for thousands of years, and telling your own stories is the best way to create empathy in your readers, stick in their minds, and persuade them to admit you.
Zag
There’s nothing less memorable than being like everyone else, and in a competition in which everyone has similar goals, sometimes it’s a good strategy to stand out from the crowd. A great personal story can be one of the most memorable elements of an application. If you’re a strong storyteller, taking the narrative approach to your long essay can set your story apart from the hundreds of others the committee will be reading. If an application offers a creative element, such as Duke Fuqua’s “25 Things” essay or NYU Stern’s “Pick Six” photo essay, you might see that as a chance to let your winning personality shine. It can feel scary to go against the grain, but taking a calculated risk can yield huge returns. When everyone else zigs, zagging could be your golden ticket.
Have Detailed Goals
An opportunity many applicants miss is not selling their career goals as a unique, personal, and valuable aspect of their candidacy. Business schools build their reputations on their annual career reports and use them as valuable marketing materials. Thus, admissions committees are necessarily looking for people whose career goals suggest successful outcomes. So while many people focus on talking about why they need this degree and why now and why at this school, some people undersell their vision for the future. A clear, compelling, and realistic career goal tells the admissions committee a lot about you and it offers a quick way for them to examine your alignment with the program’s curriculum, vision and values. Don’t just tell the admissions committee that you want to pivot into consulting, tell them that you want to help tech companies meet their waste water sustainability goals. Don’t just talk about the need to modernize the supply chain, talk about the specific technological problems you want to contribute to solving. A strong view of your future projects confidence and will almost certainly be different from nearly everyone else in your application class.
[Conclusion]
Essay evaluation is an art, not a science. That means there’s no objectively right answer, and so you shouldn’t be striving to find one. Instead, there could be hundreds of ways to connect with your essay readers in ways that will inspire them and endear your profile to them. By taking a personal approach to your writing and profile building, you give yourself the best chance to create a memorable human connection to those evaluating your application. So focus on controlling the things you can control and don’t sweat the things you can’t.